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yayu
Asked: 2012-05-18 10:32:28 +0800 CST

Identify Wireless MAC Address

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I have a desktop for which I am using an Asus N-10 USB Wireless Adapter. No driver software is needed I guess since I can see the available wifi networks. However, I am unable to connect as the "MAC Address" I gave to my service provider is incorrect. I provided the wlan HWaddr which I think is the equivalent of the MAC address but it is still not correct. A different Windows machine works fine so I know there are no mistakes. How can I find the correct number which is the equivalent of a MAC address.

ifconfig

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You are right. Your W-LAN "HWAddr" (Hardware Address) is your wireless devices MAC Address. You can look it up by typing

    ifconfig wlan0

    which will show you something like this

    wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  Hardware Adresse 00:c0:ca:19:d3:1e
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metrik:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          Kollisionen:0 Sendewarteschlangenlänge:1000 
          RX-Bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX-Bytes:0 (0.0 B)

    In case your wireless adapter uses another interface name, which you do not know, do the following:

    • Use ifconfig to get a listing of all interfaces
    • Disconnect the USB-Device
    • Check which one is missing, by reissuing ifconfig
    • 4

  2. The wlan0 HWaddr reported by the command ifconfig actually is the correct MAC address. It looks like this :

     HWaddr 51:04:b6:07:42:73

    So either the MAC filtering was incorrectly set up, or you have other interfaces or options (you did not post ifconfig output so it is rather hard to guess).

    Do try another wifi access point, just to check the ability to connect to network without other problems.

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